Devon’s Community Fridge Guide

A Community Fridge is a space where surplus food, that would otherwise be wasted, canbe shared with the local community. Volunteers and/or staff collect perfectly good food that local shops and businesses would otherwise have thrown away. Some fridges also take food from local households although 90% usually comes from businesses. The average Community Fridge shares one to six tonnes of food per month, so the collective impact of the community fridges is huge. In addition, every Community Fridge brings people together, supporting wellbeing and providing people with the opportunity to access fresh food and to save money.

Our guide will help you consider and plan all the key elements to a successful fridge, including:

• Recruiting menders and other volunteers, who are confident in their roles
• Sourcing your food
• Start-up and running costs
• Risk assessments and house rules to keep people safe
• Great marketing and publicity to draw people in
• Ways to gather simple evaluation feedback.

CAG Devon risk assessments are updated regularly to reflect current changes regarding volunteering and running events during the pandemic. Templates are available for you to customise to your own event.